A Realization
by Abigal
Summary: Ruth must chose between Adam, Zaf and a secret admirer, as they want to know the real Ruth


A realization

(After the death of Fiona, and Ruth isn't in exile. Adam is still alive, Zaf is still on the grid and Jo is around. Pick your season, but it's before Ruth starts frowning all the time. Of course Harry is still being as repressed as ever. Nothing belongs to me, all is Kudos if they want it, as well as BBC.)

It was a slow week on the Grid. The type of week that will let you catch up on your paperwork, which Adam would rather not do. He nonchalantly walked by Ruth's desk and dropped a file on it. Without missing a beat and not looking up Ruth picked it up. "Adam, I believe you left this on my desk by mistake." He grinned. He should have known there was no way Ruth was going to let him get by with his boyish prank.

At this point he sat on the edge of her desk, one leg propped over the edge and the other on the floor and he leaned over on his arm. "Ruth won't you help a fellow out?"

"I've got enough of my own pretty boy." Adam was slightly taken back by the words.

"So you think I'm pretty." Adam wasn't giving up the verbal fight just yet.

"You know you are a pretty boy. Just the type that once made my heart beat faster and I would do anything for their attention." Ruth made the confession with a smile.

"You still wouldn't do it for anything?"

"Adam, don't try the charm."

"I'm not. I'm innocent. You know you are beautiful, if only you would believe it. No I take that back. You know you are beautiful but you dress to put others off. I'd say you are avoiding work entanglements."

"Stop with the amateur psychoanalysis. I've got more work to do than you and the others combined."

The conversation between Ruth and Adam hadn't gone un-noticed by Zaf who had his own feelings for Ruth and decided he should rescue the damsel in distress.

"Adam if you are after a date with Ruth, you have to wait in line."

Ruth smiled. She adored Zaf. What was not to like. He was handsome, charming, and a smile that would melt the coldest heart, including hers, if it were as cold as many thought.

"Zaf would definitely be in line before you Adam."

"Why's that?"

"Well first of all Zaf has never almost got me killed. He wanted a desk near mine and I know he genuinely likes me for me, not who I might be."

"Well said Ruth. I take it all as a compliment. Adam is a love 'em and leave them type. You can count on me to be here during the good and the bad."

"I resent that," said Adam. "I'm a good father. I am responsible for operations in the field and Ruth saved my life."

"Duce" called Ruth, but it is still advantage to Zaf because he didn't drop a file on my desk trying to get me to do his work."

"I was just trying to get your attention."

"Adam, you can do better than that as an excuse."

"What if we both present you with our plans for an evening out with you, with no names attached? You chose the date that you would most like to experience?"

Ruth pondered the challenge. "I accept that. Have your plans on my desk by the end of the day today. The date will be for Friday."

Ruth really wasn't taking much of this serious, but it was fun to be the center of attention.

"Oh we have one condition too," said Adam looking at Zaf.

"You show us who you really are under those frumpy clothes."

"What do you mean," said Ruth with mock shock.

"We know you dress as you do as if you are playing a role. We want to know what the fun-loving Ruth is like and looks like. Whoever the lucky guy is, he gets the whole package."

Ruth raised her eyebrows with a question.

"I don't mean that," said Adam, "I mean they just get to see the real person anything else is entirely up to you."

Ruth thinks about it. It is true they have only rarely seen a glimpse of the real Ruth. The one who could date a big swinging dick, or attract the attention of more than her fair share of attractive males while at University. "Why not." She agrees.

By the end of the day she finds sheets of paper on her desks with no names attached. They're all entitled: A Perfect Date with Ruth.

The first begins: London is one of the most romantic cities in the world. (She thinks that cliché is enough to chuck it but reads on as promised.) Dinner for two at Café de Paris would be a must. Any restaurant that opened in 1924 is held in high regard by many. There is the sweeping staircase to the grandiose chandelier dominating so much space it seems to take the air from the room. It is a place that is a symphony of romance. You will not be disappointed. It's also convenient to Soho nightlife. We could continue on until daylight, or return to the place of our choosing.

It was nice but Ruth wasn't overly impressed. She suspected it was from Adam, given his attention to detail. It is the type of romance a woman normally loves to be adored with.

Then she looked at the second one which she guessed was from Zaf without even reading it. But read it she did: We start out the night in a helicopter picking us up from the roof of Themes house. Then we fly over the city for 30 minutes taking in all the fantastic sights with an aerial view. Then after picking the perfect landing zone, we have dinner at an Italian restaurant. From there we head to the opera. From the opera we fly back to Themes house for a walk along the embankment. Then the rest is up to you.

Ruth was holding both pieces of paper in her hand trying to make a decision. Neither really appealed to her. Then she noticed a third sheet lying on her desk. She was a bit perplexed. It too was unsigned, and she wondered about this secret admirer and his idea of the perfect date.

It reads: With the weather calling for a beautiful summer Friday evening I suggest a walk through Regent's Park and its Rose Garden. Our hands entwined so we are never more than a few feet apart from each other. Free from the confines of the Grid, we smile and talk of all we want from life. We pull close to each other and I envelop you with my arms and lean down and inhale the fragrance of your hair. I kiss your neck and take in the aroma of your perfume. We have a picnic basket with us and blankets to bask in the warmth of the British evening and of our own heat generated by the connection we have made with our souls and expressed through our eyes. We had made our way to Primrose Hill where we take in the stunning views while avoiding the crowds of summer. Later, much later, we hire a canal boat and take a trip down the canal through the park and London Zoo. Who doesn't love animals? As we disembark from the canal boat a car awaits us to take us where ever you chose. We have talked, we have eaten but we have not yet truly loved.  
TWICE or thrice had I loved thee,  
Before I knew thy face or name ;  
So in a voice, so in a shapeless flame  
Angels affect us oft, and worshipp'd be.  
Still when, to where thou wert, I came,  
Some lovely glorious nothing did I see.  
But since my soul, whose child love is,  
Takes limbs of flesh, and else could nothing do,  
More subtle than the parent is  
Love must not be, but take a body too ;  
And therefore what thou wert, and who,  
I bid Love ask, and now  
That it assume thy body, I allow,  
And fix itself in thy lip, eye, and brow.

Whilst thus to ballast love I thought,  
And so more steadily to have gone,  
With wares which would sink admiration,  
I saw I had love's pinnace overfraught ;  
Thy every hair for love to work upon  
Is much too much ; some fitter must be sought ;  
For, nor in nothing, nor in things  
Extreme, and scattering bright, can love inhere ;  
Then as an angel face and wings  
Of air, not pure as it, yet pure doth wear,  
So thy love may be my love's sphere ;  
Just such disparity  
As is 'twixt air's and angels' purity,  
'Twixt women's love, and men's, will ever be.

Ruth recognized it as Air and Angels by John Donne, about a man whose love is beyond that of mere flesh but one who struggles to give and receive love. It is about the exploration of love. This letter intrigues Ruth. She knows she has made her choice but how to make the choice known. She suspects who it is from, the one who seems to know her best and she was sure had noticed her from the first moment she walked onto the Grid.

Hours earlier Harry had entered through his private door into Themes House. As he hung up his jacket planning to work in shirt sleeves, he opened his door intending to ask for a moment of Ruth's time to help with another report. It was at this point he heard the banter between Ruth, Zaf and Adam. His heart stopped for a moment, then started beating so fast he thought he might drop dead for fear of losing that which he craved, and not just craved but loved most. They were after his Ruth. Ruth had never attracted their attention before. Why now? He was confused and worried at the same time. He heard the challenge. Then he returned to his desk, tossed the file he had planned to complete out of the way and began his response to the challenge. Next he had to work out a way to slip it into the stack with Zaf and Adam's. _Can I compete with such men who are younger, more athletic, and handsome? _

Putting his fears away, he noticed Ruth had left her desk, and Adam and Zaf were talking to Malcolm. He quietly walked over and slipped it on the bottom of the pile of would-be suitors.

Back in the present.

Ruth was a little distressed as to how to ask the third person to gather at her desk. So she called Zaf and Adam to her desk hoping the third person might reveal himself. Just at the time both men arrived, Harry came up and asked, "What's going one?"

Adam took the lead, "Ruth is going to choose her date for Friday from between the two of us."

"She is?" Harry raised his eyebrows, "Well this should be interesting."

Ruth was a little annoyed that Harry wasn't showing any sign of leaving her with this personal matter.

"So what does the winner get," asked Harry?

"Well a date with Ruth. The real Ruth. No frumpiness. We know there is more to her and we want to see, er, know it."

"Adam, don't you feel you have put undue pressure on Ruth."

This time Ruth came to his defense, "I did agree to it."

"I see," said Harry. He had a pouting look on his face and suddenly neither Zaf nor Adam thought this was such a good idea.

"Well Ruth what kind of responses did you get?"

"That's just it Harry. There are three."

Zaf and Adam both looked at each other.

Ruth tossed the third one down, and said, "It's the one I have selected."

Zaf and Adam were stunned it wasn't either of theirs.

"Ruth you aren't trying to get out of this by tossing in one on your own," asked Adam?

"No."

At this point Harry decided he would step forward and read the document. "Oh that's mine."

With that statement all three had their mouths open and as Harry walked away, he said, "Ruth I need to know what time to pick you up Friday, or shall we just leave from here."

Ruth was speechless for a moment or two. "I'd say we can leave from the grid. I'll bring my clothes to change into. Casual is fine I am assuming by what you have planned."

"I want to see you as they said, in something not so frumpy."

Ruth thought it was time to really show him. The frumpy remark was beginning to irritate her.

As Friday arrived, Ruth knocked on Harry's door. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I'm just going to change for our evening out. It's a walk, picnic, and boat ride as I recall. I think my clothes will be suitable."

Harry just smiled as she left to change.

Ruth had kept her outfit hidden for everyone on the grid although they were all curious and had pestered her all day. Seems no national emergencies were pending.

All eyes were on her when she stepped back onto the Grid wearing a Brazilian body suit designed for casual wear. Solid black, with a sexy open back with six straps crossing. They had yet to glimpse the back. The front was revealing enough. The silver waist belt added just the accent needed should they need to go somewhere a little less casual. The v-shaped front of the bodysuit left little to the imagination. With the form fitting material all her curves were visible, and there were no flaws evident to any of the men who were now all speechless. Harry had just taken a drink of his scotch and spewed it everywhere.

Fortunately Ruth missed that reaction. As she looked toward Harry's office he too was standing there with eyes burning with passion. It was so strong a look Ruth gave a thought to running from the Grid. Instead, she felt her arm grabbed strongly by Harry. "No thoughts of running Ruth." It seemed he could read her mind.

He had undone his tie and a couple of buttons on his shirt but was still wearing a jacket. "I think we're ready to go."

As they left, he looked at Adam and said, "Don't even think of using CCTV, or Red Flashing us. Nothing will bring us back to the Grid tonight. In fact, we may not return for a couple of days. It is the weekend."

With that he escorted Ruth from the Grid, as Zaf and Adam both realized what an amazing woman Ruth was but they also knew they would be exiled to Antarctica should they now make any attempt at a date with Ruth. He truly had claimed her, and from the look she gave him, it was evident she was about to let him claim her.


End file.
